Ministry of Statistics Releases Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey 2025-26
The National Statistics Office (NSO), under the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, has published the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey conducted from July 2025 to June 2026 as part of the NSS 80th round. The comprehensive survey covered 246,113 households across India, comprising 142,603 rural and 103,510 urban households, excluding only inaccessible villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Data was collected using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) through Schedule 21.1, focusing on three trip categories: overnight trips completed during last 365 days with specific purposes, overnight trips completed during last 30 days, and same-day trips completed during last 30 days.
For overnight trips during the last 365 days, pilgrimage and religious purposes dominated with 48% of all trips across both rural and urban areas. Rural areas showed 127 trips per 100 tourist households (up from 118 in 2014-15) while urban areas recorded 132 trips per 100 households (up from 121 in 2014-15). Health and medical purposes constituted the second-largest share in rural areas at 38.4%, while holidaying, leisure and recreation accounted for 36.4% in urban areas. The average trip size was 2.03 overnight visitors per trip, with 80% of visitors preferring stays of 5 days or less. May and October emerged as peak months for holiday trips. Transportation preferences varied significantly, with buses dominating rural travel (32% share) and trains being preferred in urban areas (35% share). Uttar Pradesh accounted for the highest share of visitor-trips at 15.7%, followed by Tamil Nadu (13.4%) and Rajasthan (8.0%). Health and medical trips recorded the highest expenditure at ₹29,454 in rural areas and ₹41,649 in urban areas.
For recent overnight trips (last 30 days), social purposes dominated overwhelmingly with 89% of all trips. The survey recorded 113 trips per 100 rural tourist households and 111 trips per 100 urban tourist households. The average trip size was 1.95 visitors, with approximately 45% of trips lasting 2-3 days. Buses were the most preferred mode of travel (48% rural, 44% urban), and friends and relatives' places were the major accommodation type. Uttar Pradesh again led as the main destination with 15.5% share, followed by Bihar (10.5%) and Tamil Nadu (9.6%). Business trips recorded the highest expenditure at ₹5,179 per trip in rural areas and ₹6,934 in urban areas.
Same-day trips showed significant participation, with 65.1% of rural households (up from 57.1% in 2014-15) and 46.2% of urban households (up from 40.6% in 2014-15) undertaking at least one same-day trip in the last 30 days. The survey recorded 185 same-day trips per 100 rural tourist households and 156 per 100 urban tourist households. Social purposes (32% rural, 37% urban) and shopping (29% rural, 17% urban) were the most frequently undertaken same-day trips. Shopping trips recorded the highest expenditure, followed by health and medical trips, with shopping accounting for 51% of expenditure share in rural areas and 41% in urban areas.